Peacemaker

James Gunn returns to the world of The Suicide Squad with his original series Peacemaker. The show begins where the film left off, with Christopher Smith/Peacemaker (John Cena) waking up in a hospital after having survived his injury at the end of the movie. He’s eventually recruited into a new Taskforce X team, lead by Clemson Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji). The rest of the team include Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), John Economos (Steve Agee) and new member Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), who’s secretly the daughter of Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), who sent her to keep an eye on the team. Gunn wrote and directed many episodes, and his magic touch is all over it. All of the characters are given equal character development and screen time to shine. Peacemaker is shown to suffer from trauma involving his racist, abusive father (Robert Patrick), his only friends are his pet bald eagle Eagly, and Adrian Chase aka Vigilante (Freddie Stroma), who worships Peacemaker and is a self proclaimed crime fighter. He eventually joins the team after following them on a mission. 

It continues the same outrageous, black comedy that Gunn brought to The Suicide Squad. The team’s mission involves stopping Project Butterfly, who Peacemaker soon learns involves alien butterflies that take over human bodies. Their mission gets complicated when he’s attacked by one of these aliens disguised as a woman he has a one night stand with, leading to a funny and outrageous fight where he’s eventually forced to kill her. This brings in the attention of 2 police detectives (Annie Chang and Lochlyn Munro). In order to cover up Peacemaker’s involvement, John uses his computer hacking skills to frame Peacemaker’s father for the murder. Once he learns of that he’s been falsely accused of a murder his son committed, the angry father vows to kill his son, whom he’s always been disappointed in. All of these plots come together, complicating their mission.

Cena shows amazing range in his role, managing to be both goofy and displaying serious dramatic acting chops, proving that he’s a damn good actor. The rest of the cast are all equally fantastic, each bringing their A game. Gunn’s script, while filled with plenty of comedy, also brings in a surprising amount of gravitas, displaying some wonderfully touching and emotional moments. And once again, Gunn doesn’t shy away from brutal violence and gore. Even the opening of the series is awesome, with all the characters doing synchronized dance moves to the theme song, made even more hilarious by the serious expressions on their faces. The series has been a hit and was just picked up for a 2nd season, which I’m psyched about. It really is fantastic. If you loved The Suicide Squad, then you will equally love this series as well.